Adventures Around The World

It’s our last night in the campervan, and it sorta feels like the last night of the trip, too. But we still have two nights in Melbourne, followed by a full week in French Polynesia.

We spent an hour or two sitting outside, gazing up at the incredible starscape late last night in Grampians National Park, talking a bit about the trip so far.

One of the questions we asked each other was, at this late stage of our epic trip, how much longer could we go in the campervan? Jen said another two weeks, depending on pace, while I said a solid month.

This portion of the trip has been the most comfortable, in part because Australia is quite like America. But also because this kind of travel—roadtripping the national parks—is our jam. We’re just doing it while driving on the other side of the road, seeing unusual wildlife, and sleeping in a campervan and not our Subaru or a tent.

We’ve thought a lot about acquiring such a vehicle for domestic travel over the last several years, but never came to a solid conclusion on if it would be worth the cost over simply tent camping and/or hoteling it. In most of our scenarios, it probably wasn’t. Still, there’s something very appealing about campervan travel, and I think the ease and relative luxury(?) of it would assist us in getting out of town more often.

But with job uncertainty looming, especially around schedule flexibility, we think it’s probably best to see how the year plays out. But that doesn’t mean we won’t constantly discuss, strategize, fantasize, research, and consider in the meanwhile. -S 🇦🇺

We started our first of two days driving the scenic Great Ocean Road, often regarded as one of the world’s best coastal highways, and one of the most remarkable war memorials, too.

A largely community-driven project, it served numerous purposes: a memorial to the fallen (Australia experienced the highest casualty rate of any nation in the Great War), an employment project for returning soldiers who needed work, and a way to connect isolated coastal communities and opening up the coast for tourism and development. And of course, it’s also quite scenic, offering some great coastal views (similar to the Pacific Coast Highway in the US) and plenty of beach access too. I bet this place is really hopping on good weather days—the water is much bluer than you’d expect.

Unfortunately, we caught much of it on a rainy day, and had no plans to swim anyway. So much of our visit was simply driving through, pulling off at numerous pull-offs and viewpoints, and generally enjoying the scenery.

Kennett River Nature Walk

Along the drive, there’s a popular short nature walk, bounded by local backyards on one side and a small river on the other, where you can often spot wild koalas. We had an incredible koala experience yesterday at Raymond Island (more photos of that soon), but we wanted to check out this little trail as well. While there were fewer koalas to be seen today, we still managed to find some.

I also really enjoy these laughing kookaburras, so between koala-spotting in the trees, I had my eyes out for sightings of these guys, too.

These cormorants near the start of the trail looked quite grumpy.

We also managed to have lunch at a brewery, and dinner at a brewhouse. Go figure, huh?

We have a number of additional stops planned for tomorrow, and hope to get as far as South Australia before we begin heading back towards Melbourne, where we return our campervan and fly to Tahiti. -S 🇦🇺

Australia’s Parliament House is located in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The unique building, opened in 1988, has two large curved walls, separating the building into four quadrants with grass covering parts of the roof. Interestingly, instead of towering above the ground like most capital buildings, this one seems to emerge from the ground…its intended design. -J 🇦🇺

Making our way inland towards Canberra, we stopped at two sets of short walks to magnificent falls. -S 🇦🇺

Carrington Falls, Budderoo National Park

Fitzroy Falls, Morton National Park

After returning to the Blue Mountains for the morning, we finally made our way back towards Sydney for the “start” of our drive towards Melbourne, where we’re returning the campervan in a little over a week.

Royal National Park

Our first stop was Royal National Park, just south of Sydney. There wasn’t specific we wanted to see or do there, except to pay homage to its very existence. You see, its claim to fame is being the second national park in the world, just a few years behind the incomparable Yellowstone. In fact, it was simply called The National Park for the first 75 years of its history, maintaining its “the” status even while numerous other national parks were established throughout Australia. Finally in 1955, to commemorate an official visit from Queen Elizabeth II in 1955—the first British monarch to visit Australia—the name was changed to Royal. I’m sure it helped reduce confusion, too.

Given our schedule, we only spent a couple hours in the park, first stopping at the visitor center, which is primarily a small cafe and gift shop, and hanging out at the nearby river.

We then made it over to the famed Mattawolla area, checking out the small waterfall (guarded by a tall fence to prevent cliff jumpers, though we watched numerous people do it anyway) and the local swimming beaches.

While the park is now a UNESCO-listed Biosphere Reserve, it was primarily designated as a recreational park for Sydney residents, and you can certainly get that vibe during a visit. It’s too bad we didn’t have time for a hike there.

Grand Pacific Drive

After departing Royal National Park, it was time for some coastal driving along the Grand Pacific Drive, which begins near the park’s southern boundary. The highlight of the scenic drive is the Sea Cliff Bridge, a curving affair that jets out over the rugged coastline. This bridge apparently elicits exceptional pride from Australians. It was fun to see, but we didn’t loiter around too much; it was already late in the day at this point.

We did manage to pair dinner with a brewery stop, at Five Barrel in nearby Wollongong, before heading off for our campsite. -S 🇦🇺

In places where swimming might be a bit dangerous, many communities in Australia have built rock pools. These are public swimming pools built into shoreline rock adjacent to the ocean (and often naturally refilled with seawater during high tide) that offer residents a safer—and quite scenic—swimming experience. -S 🇦🇺

The Blue Mountains west of Sydney are renowned, and they didn’t disappoint! Here are some shots from our time there. -S 🇦🇺

A quintessential view of the Blues—a waterfall cascades off a rocky escapement towards the thick forest below, punctuating what is an expansive vista.

A rare selfie

Scroll down to see what this waterfall looked like about 30 seconds later…

I’m not sure what it was about these trail blocks, but I really enjoyed taking photos of them.

They always added a bit of visual interest in each stretch of trail they were in.

Unfortunately, sometimes these steps lead up and up and up and up.

Three Sisters

And here’s that earlier waterfall moments later. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to really line up a quality shot before it was fully engulfed by the clouds.

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While the dense carpeting of tall trees dominates the valley floors, this stand of eucalyptus caught our eyes (or maybe we were just craving some broccoli).

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Here are some other sites around Sydney we happened upon while we wandered. -J 🇦🇺

First and foremost, the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. (Don’t worry, there are more photos of the Opera House below!)

We ran across this ornate iron canopy that only said “Keep The Pavement Dry.” Apparently this is an old drinking fountain with an admonition against “sloppy drinking.” It was 1 of 8 installed in Sydney during the mid-1800s.

In this same park was an obelisk placed at the site from which all public roads into the interior of Australia were measured from.

An interesting fountain, unusual buildings, and a night scene.

The Museum of Sydney, built over the foundation of the First Government House and the location of the home of New South Wales’s first governor, Arthur Phillip. To map Sydney in 1831, 8 boundary stones were laid marking the edges of the city, the 7th of which is now housed in this Museum.

Sydney’s oldest Pub (Fortune of War) (1828).

And Sydney’s oldest pub brewery and oldest continuously operated hotel (Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel) (1841).

And, as promised, more from the Opera House. We found it interesting that each of the sail-shaped shells seems to be separated from the others and it is not just one continuous hall.

The full day we had in Sydney was rainy, so we visited a few museums. One was the Hyde Park Barracks (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), which was an interesting overview on Australia as a convict colony. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Britain transported many of its convicts to Australia and they became the labor force that eventually built modern Sydney and Australia.

The Barracks opened in 1819 as a dormitory to house male convicts, especially those who had just arrived. The Barracks remain intact today and visitors can see the original walls and ceiling/roof originally built by the convicts. In 1848, it was changed to a female immigration depot and then later served as an asylum for poor, sick, and homeless women. -J 🇦🇺